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It shows among two and three-years-olds in childcare centres, no differences in behaviour or adjustment were apparent between the children who had started formal care as babies and those who had started later after having been at home with a parent or other carer.

''There were no discernible differences between the two groups after taking into account factors such as the socio-economic status of the families,'' Dr Harrison said.

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Based on thousands of children tracked in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the study used nine measures to examine how the two and three year-olds were faring.

These included how the children got on with other children, and with childcare workers, the level of problem behaviours, and how much they appeared to enjoy their activities.

The findings were based mostly on reports by teachers, as well as by parents. A significant difference between the groups was apparent on only one measure - boys who had been in a combination of centre-based and home care as babies tended to have more conflicts with childcare workers.

''But it is one finding out of nine,'' Dr Harrison said. The study also tested whether longer hours in care - another contentious issue - was associated with worse outcomes.

It found the more the toddlers were at the centre, the happier and more comfortable they were, but they also had more conflicts with carers.

A second study, by Rebekah Levine Coley, a professor of developmental and educational psychology at Boston College, based on the Australian data, tracked the children through to age seven. It also found no detrimental effects from infant childcare.

Children performed better at school if they had been in childcare at ages two and four. But behaviour problems among the four-year-olds were worse than among four-year-old cared for at home.

A third study found four-year-olds who went to a pre-school or a pre-school type program rather than a childcare centre had an initial significant cognitive advantage when they started school. But by age eight or nine, the academic skill advantage had disappeared.